Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

How Long Will We Be in Iraq?

The latest news on how long the United States will continue to wage its war in Iraq is profoundly disturbing, because of both what it says and who is saying it. The speaker is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The essence of his statement was summarized recently in the newspapers when Rumsfeld said the insurgency could go on for as long as 12 years.

This is a far cry from the initial expectations of President Bush who, early in the war years, flew to Iraq and had his arrival announced by signs that read “Mission Accomplished.” Saddam Hussein was on the run, and Bush read this to mean that, in effect, the war was over. Actually, that was the beginning of the real war, the guerrilla war fought in the streets and alleys of Iraq.

As time went by, the insurgents gathered strength as their forces grew with the flood of dedicated Muslims from all over the Islamic world. Rumsfeld’s conclusions were foreshadowed by the statement of America’s top commander for the Middle East, who declared that the overall strength of the insurgency is “about the same as it was” six months ago.

His statement was a public correction of an optimistic declaration by Vice President Dick Cheney that the rising violence in Iraq was a symptom of the desperation of the insurgents in their “death throes.”

All of which, in light of the statement by Rumsfeld that the war is likely to drag on for a dozen years, raises the question of whether this will actually happen. The answer is yes, if — and it is a big, big if — future presidents and future Congresses are a repetition of the same kind of president and Congresses we have had since the election of George Bush. But between now and 2017, there will be three presidential elections and about twice as many congressional elections.

Polls reveal that more and more Americans now believe that the war in Iraq was unnecessary and unjustifiable. They also believe that the economy is deteriorating and that it will get worse as the federal debt grows and we encounter an unbearable debt burden.

The sooner we get out of Iraq, the better. We still can leave with dignity by turning over Iraq’s future to the United Nations or to some other agency devised for the purpose. The alternative is for us to leave because we were driven out, and then we can depart with our tail between our legs.

Tyler, Too will be on hiatus until the fall.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.